While the age of indifference by rail companies to business travellers may be over, the relationship between train operators and corporates still does not always run smoothly
The enthusiasm for UK companies to book rail has increased enormously in the last few years. While environmental considerations have played a part, there are other major factors which have come into play.
First speed, frequency, reliability and punctuality on British trains have improved significantly, making them better bets for the time-pressed business traveller. Of at least equal importance, online booking engines, like thetrainline.com and Evolvi, the latter especially designed for the corporate market, have simplified and transformed bookings for the TMC and its corporate clients.
GDSs, like Amadeus, are also well on the way to putting the whole of the UK railway inventory onto its screen as it they have done with Eurostar.
These advances both capture MI and drive compliance. Travellers also have the facility of printing tickets in their office and, in the not too distant future, many will be able to board trains with just an SMS message rather than a paper ticket.
But the UK and Ireland Institute of Travel and Meetings' Forum in London last week revealed considerable problems still exist between train operating companies (TOCs) and the corporate clients they now wish to attract.
The first and perhaps cardinal of these problems is that UK TOCs do not do corporate deals. SNCF in France, SNCB in Belgium and Deutsche Bahn in Germany thrive on such deals, signing possibly thousands between them involving discounts in return for guaranteed volume.
Putting aside the traditional lack of interest and the feeling - still there - that to travel by train you just go along to the station on the day of travel and buy the ticket, there is another major reason why UK TOCs have no deals.
The three continental operators al have one owner, the state, while trains in the UK are run by a disparate group of companies.
Andy Wakefield, head of fares and retail supply for the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), told the Forum: "There is a desire for corporate deals but it is not easy to make them work because of the number of operators."
That is if the journey of a traveller on a corporate covers two TOCs, how is the deal and discount divided up. "There are deals to be done but you have to do them with one operator," Mr Wakefield said.
But even this is not straightforward. Stephanie Rivet, Virgin Trains' director of revenue management, said its business objective was to offer a choice of prices and convenience of purchase with the aim of maximising the number of people aboard each service.
Citing the stiff competition from both air and car on the London-Manchester route, Ms Rivet said: "We spend a lot of time talking to corporate clients to get the best deal for them." But what this turns out to means is largely guiding them to trains departure times which are cheaper than others.
For example, Virgin classifies its 0803 weekday departure from London for Manchester as "hot" - that is it is full. Other trains get a cooler category indicating the extent to which they are full. It's revenue management: the higher the demand, the higher the price, not discounts that Virgin is talking.
Ms Rivet's colleague, Andy May, Virgin's business development manager, made this clear when he told the Forum the talks were about buying strategy. "What we try to understand is how you buy your travel as an organisation and how e can help," he said.
One strategy was to buy in advance rather than on the day of travel to save money. This is a message which Virgin seems to be getting through as it said 29.23% of its sales were now made in advance. The national figure is 3%.
There is also the possibility of arranging meetings so staff can catch the later and cheaper trains. In case anyone did not get the point, Mr May added: "We don't feel it is right to have discounted negotiated rates. It distorts our revenue management policy."
While this was not what the buyers present probably wanted to hear. But Mr Wakefield of ATOC struck a more optimistic note to end the session. "There are very rigid rules in place and that makes it harder to create third party ticketing deals. We want to liberalise that."
This many not happen very soon.
Stanley Slaughter